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Jerry Bentley Prize

In 2014 the American Historical Association established the Jerry Bentley Prize in World History, which honors Jerry Bentley’s tireless efforts to promote the field of world history, and his signal contributions to it. A professor at the University of Hawaii, Bentley was one of the leading figures in the world history movement and the founding editor of the Journal of World History. The Bentley prize is awarded annually to the best book in each calendar year in the field of world history. The general rules for submission are:

Any book published in English dealing with global or world-scale history, with connections or comparisons across continents, in any period will be eligible.

Books bearing an imprint of 2014 are eligible for the 2015 prize.

Nominators must complete an online prize submission form for each book submitted.

One copy of each entry must be sent to each committee member and clearly labeled “Bentley Prize Entry.” Electronic copies may be sent only to committee members who have indicated they will accept them.

Please Note: Entries must be postmarked or transmitted by May 15, 2015, to be eligible for the 2015 competition. Entries will not be returned. Recipients will be announced at the January 2016 AHA annual meeting in Atlanta.

2014 Bentley Prize

This imaginative and far-ranging book argues that guano was key to globally transformative phenomena, from industrialization to “neo-ecological imperialism” in settler colonies and from conservationist visions to spectacular environmental failures. For fully integrating Latin America in Pacific history, re-centering nineteenth-century world history on the Pacific region, and artfully combining ecological, geopolitical, and cultural analysis, Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World deserves recognition as a pathbreaking, original contribution to world history.